There has been a lot of previous discussion within EA about systemic change; see here for an example. Many people think that the reason that places like San Francisco are so expensive is that they are desirable places to live. But actually it is this and that there are restrictions on building. There are lots of cities that are growing rapidly but do not have many restrictions on building, like Nashville (where I used to live), Houston, Denver, etc. that have relatively moderate long-term real estate inflation. There have been Open Philanthropy Project grants looking at land use reform, which would be the sort of systemic change that could reduce cost for both renters and buyers.
As for why EAs have deprioritized helping people in developed country poverty, it is generally because they are an order of magnitude richer than the global poor.
I think it’s kind of ridiculous, goes back to the emotional aspect of philanthropy in people will donate to something that makes them feel good instead of doing the biggest bang with their buck. Like Anand talks about..
Donating to distributing drugs in Africa is one such thing. You could impact invest in an application that sends people in Africa a reminder to take a TB shot, and save millions of lives… but Prevention is exponentially better. Stop donating money sending americans on trips to africa for ‘aid’, just build better homes and infrastructure there, you solve many problems at once.
But if we can solve poverty in developed countries, there is just so much more money available for them to also become donors as well. Not even discussing ‘poverty’, lets just imagine if the 80% of people in the US who are living paycheck to paycheck, could loosen the amount of debt they have (which is mostly due to real estate). They wouldn’t then all of a sudden take on more debt by buying more assets, they would save up. They would not have to work multiple jobs. They would volunteer, and donate.
Of the 100 million ‘near relative poverty’ in the US, 43 million are yes below poverty lines.
Just imagine if we had 100 million people now who were making good money, didn’t waste half their income on rent, could now also get a better education, learn about causes, and join us in donating (or impact investing) to the best cause around the world, for prevention.
It would be exponential. More so than half the causes here. And it’s systematic change that doesn’t require a massive shift in politics. There are already opportunity zones, but they are still in the same field of extracting money. They aren’t creating wealth for low-medium income populations. This is systematic change that can be done by investing.
There has been a lot of previous discussion within EA about systemic change; see here for an example. Many people think that the reason that places like San Francisco are so expensive is that they are desirable places to live. But actually it is this and that there are restrictions on building. There are lots of cities that are growing rapidly but do not have many restrictions on building, like Nashville (where I used to live), Houston, Denver, etc. that have relatively moderate long-term real estate inflation. There have been Open Philanthropy Project grants looking at land use reform, which would be the sort of systemic change that could reduce cost for both renters and buyers.
As for why EAs have deprioritized helping people in developed country poverty, it is generally because they are an order of magnitude richer than the global poor.
I think it’s kind of ridiculous, goes back to the emotional aspect of philanthropy in people will donate to something that makes them feel good instead of doing the biggest bang with their buck. Like Anand talks about..
Donating to distributing drugs in Africa is one such thing. You could impact invest in an application that sends people in Africa a reminder to take a TB shot, and save millions of lives… but Prevention is exponentially better. Stop donating money sending americans on trips to africa for ‘aid’, just build better homes and infrastructure there, you solve many problems at once.
But if we can solve poverty in developed countries, there is just so much more money available for them to also become donors as well. Not even discussing ‘poverty’, lets just imagine if the 80% of people in the US who are living paycheck to paycheck, could loosen the amount of debt they have (which is mostly due to real estate). They wouldn’t then all of a sudden take on more debt by buying more assets, they would save up. They would not have to work multiple jobs. They would volunteer, and donate.
Of the 100 million ‘near relative poverty’ in the US, 43 million are yes below poverty lines.
Just imagine if we had 100 million people now who were making good money, didn’t waste half their income on rent, could now also get a better education, learn about causes, and join us in donating (or impact investing) to the best cause around the world, for prevention.
It would be exponential. More so than half the causes here. And it’s systematic change that doesn’t require a massive shift in politics. There are already opportunity zones, but they are still in the same field of extracting money. They aren’t creating wealth for low-medium income populations. This is systematic change that can be done by investing.